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“Wait. I remember that,” Duke said with a frown. “Didn’t an FBI agent who was part of that raid go missing not long after?”
Cash nodded. “Right. But the thing is, it was the FBI agent that drew the gun. He was going to shoot the guy in the hood. That’s when he called him by name.”
“I hit the crate with my shoulder,” Ralen said. “The FBI agent turned toward us.”
“And the guy in the hood . . . he moved as fast as a ninja. He pulled this knife out of nowhere and slashed the guy’s throat,” Cash said.
“Then he turned to us,” Ralen said starkly. “I thought we were dead.”
Cash glanced over at her, the look in his face one of devastation and resignation. It was a strange mix.
“Because no one went against the Devil and lived,” Ralen said.
“The Devil?” Duke said. “That’s what the FBI agent called him?
Cash nodded.
“Why didn’t he kill you?” Aidan asked.
She swallowed back bile.
“I used the only thing that might protect us,” Ralen said. “My ties to Dante Diaz. I’m his cousin. I didn’t know him that well. I told the Devil that we’d leave, go to him, never come back. I don’t know . . . he hesitated at the idea of killing me. I told him that if he killed me or Cash, Dante would be upset.”
“Still thought he was going to kill us,” Cash said. “Instead, he said we had to leave that night. Not to contact any family or friends unless we wanted them to die. That we had to be dead to them, and we weren’t ever to return.” Cash met their gazes. “We were seventeen and scared. We believed him.”
“So we used what money we had on us, and we got on a bus to get as far as we could out of the city,” Ralen explained. “Then I called Dante and explained what was going on. He said he’d welcome us both into the family . . . but we had to swear loyalty to him and leave our old loyalties behind. That there was no family for us but the cartel. So we did. And we’ve been with him ever since.”
“I can’t believe the Devil didn’t kill you,” Aidan said. “And that I’ve never heard of him until recently.”
“I don’t think that he spent much time here in Billings,” Ralen said. “He was more of a legend whispered about. Most of us didn’t think he was real. I only knew of him because Mama said a few things. She was superstitious so I thought she was full of shit. She wasn’t. He didn’t really rule over the Devil’s Kingdom or any of the other gangs. Not directly anyway. That shipment was meant to be distributed through the US, from what he and the FBI agent were saying.”
“So he was importing drugs, then using gangs to distribute them? He was a fucking drug kingpin?” Aidan asked. “But like a puppet master working in the shadows.”
“It sounds like there was another rat working with the FBI agent,” Duke said. “And that’s who Matthew and his friends were searching for.”
“So it could be that guy I saw in the shadows,” she said.
“But who is he?” Hack asked. “And why attack Greer now?”
“Because she’s back in Billings and he remembered her?” Ralen asked. “But that would mean he would have to know she was here.”
“He saw me,” she whispered.
“What?” Hack asked, turning to her.
“He was there that night of the brawl at Reaper’s. The guy from the shadows. He was standing in the shadows then too. And he was watching. And I think he was with the Rykers. Or at least, he was enjoying the chaos they were creating. It was the same guy I saw that night.”
“Fuck.” Hack gaped at her. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t remember him. I mean . . . he looked familiar, but I didn’t know why. Do you think he could also be the guy who hurt me today?”
“Fuck. Maybe,” Cash said. “But how would he have known where you were?”
“He could have followed her?” Ralen suggested.
“He saw you that night?” Duke asked. “At Reaper’s?”
She nodded.
